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A Bridge to History

June 20, 2024 by Jared Davis

Season II Episode 3 Pencil Sketch

I have often said that the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge is a character in GONOGO. But this month’s episode takes it a step farther by unlocking the ghost of the former President himself. I am cautious about introducing new characters too often, because it can feel like there are too many people to keep track of, but I feel that this one is worth it. The comic would suffer if Foggy and Smithson only talked to each other. Having new characters is a way for them to communicate with the outside world and react to the profound weirdness that the DC area provides. In a way Teddy is personifying a feeling that any DMV resident carries with them subconsciously all the time; the weight of history in this place. All of the monuments, the civil war, the revolutionary war, civil rights, the world wars, Vietnam, 9/11 (the rest of America may forget that the Pentagon was hit that day, but folks around here find it hard to forget) even Jan 6 is part of the history around here. So, that is part of why Teddy has popped up in GONOGO, he’s a refection of the ever-present feeling of history that we have around here, and as a bonus I get the opportunity to make another republican look ridiculous (although they don’t seem to need my help doing that lately…)

Filed Under: Foggy Bottom, Political Cartoon, Process, Season 2, Smithson, Teddy Roosevelt, Washington DC Tagged With: Foggy Bottom, GONOGO Multiverse, New Episodes, Potomac, Roosevelt Bridge, Season 2, Smithson, Washington DC

Groundhog Day Watercolor

May 16, 2024 by Jared Davis

Scanned watercolor used in panels 3 and 5

I have said many times before that I am intentionally being a luddite when making a webcomic. That is, while I do assemble the comic in Photoshop, each panel is a painstakingly hand-crafted watercolor painting. (I buck convention with webcomics in lots of other ways, specifically the one page format, which not the “vertical infinite scroll” format which is very popular with people consuming comics on their phones) I did make a small, but significant, concession to my luddite process in Episode 2 of Season II. I made a watercolor of the background which I then inserted as the same background in 6 of the 8 panels on the page. I have heard that when contemporary webcomics do this with background characters (sometimes main characters) the term is “Sprites”. I can see the appeal of not having to draw characters over and over again (and to be fair, for the gag in this comic I have used the same watercolor of the characters in panels 3 and 5) but I think that the “wonkyness” of repainting each character is part of the, ahem, artistic point of this comic. I have always tried to play up the hand-made nature of GONOGO, but I am not so dogmatic about it that I don’t allow myself to cheat on my ideals from time to time…so there, you caught me. Happy now?

“Sprite” Elevator Background in panels 2-7

Filed Under: Crypto Batman, Foggy Bottom, Process, Season 2, Smithson Tagged With: Crypto Batman, Foggy Bottom, GONOGO Multiverse, New Episodes, Process, Season 2

Season II Premiers APRIL 4th 2024!

February 29, 2024 by Jared Davis

Get ready for GONOGO Season II!

We are changing up the format of GONOGO this season. You can look for new episodes monthly (the first Thursday of every month, to be exact) with an informative and entertaining (fingers crossed) blog post sometime between episodes. The pace of every two weeks was just too hectic for such a finely crafted piece of, er, art…

Again, I would like to thank you all for your continued support, and I look forward to providing a sliver of comedy monthly to your drab, monotonous existence. (you know I kid…)

 

Filed Under: Foggy Bottom, Process, Season 2, Smithson

MK ULTRA EXTRAVAGANZA

June 3, 2022 by Jared Davis

Eagle eyed readers of GONOGO will be able to spot many references to earlier plot points featured this season in this weeks comic. Diving into the psychedelic horror that would exist in the minds of Foggy and Smithson, I wanted to highlight the paranoid and conspiracy theory driven world we are living in at the moment. I also added in a healthy dose of sixties era psychedelia art references because, lets face it, a little goes a long way, and the Federal Government is going to save money by using up the old stockpile. These last three episodes have been the most popular yet, which makes me wonder what that says about you, dear reader…
We are heading into the home stretch for season one. This was episode 22, and we are ending on episode 26. I am interested in collecting data from you folks about the future of this strip, but I will ask you all more about that in the coming weeks. Thanks again for reading, and as every Youtuber says, “Like and Subscribe!”

Filed Under: Colonel Magnolia Runsandhyde, Mayor McChez, Political Cartoon, Potomac, Process, Smithson, Teapot Rats, Washington DC Tagged With: Colonel Magnolia Runsandyde, Foggy Bottom, GONOGO Multiverse, Mayor McChez, Potomac, Season 1, Smithson, Teapot Rats, Washington DC

Mind Expansion Developments

May 19, 2022 by Jared Davis

 

The tainted DC water storyline has been the medium for some character development. In a one page strip such as this it becomes difficult to get into the backstory of any of the characters. This week we gain a bit more insight into Smithson’s origins. We know from previous episodes that he was washed down rock creek from his home in the National Zoo during the derecho of 2013. We now learn that he was one of the Smithsonian’s “Simian ambassadors”, and was trotted around various schools and government offices (including the CIA…which is literally just upstream from the Roosevelt Bridge). We can suppose that it was on these field trips (and possible clandestine detours) that he developed the ability to reason and eventually talk (In my mind, a very similar, although less violent, development that Caesar goes through in the reboot of Planet of the Apes).  He did indeed build up an immunity to some of the mind control drugs, but the last panel might hint that he is out of his depth in next weeks episode…

Filed Under: Process, Smithson, Washington DC Tagged With: Roosevelt Bridge, Smithson, Washington DC

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